Why everyone in America needs workplace flexibility

Adapt to survive. The concept, taken from evolution and business, can be itself adapted to many facets of our lives. It’s time for our culture of work to adapt, for the benefit of the American people, this generation and those to come. Working mothers have long been fighting for greater workplace flexibility for many important, practical reasons. Volumes have been written on the subject. On occasion, articles will mention how this affects other women, children, and even fathers, but the analysis often stops there. This is a mistake. We all need increased workplace flexibility, and it’s high time we fight for it.

Consider the facts. First, obesity levels are rising. Michelle Obama has smartly chosen this issue to highlight in her advocacy work. But junk food and excessive screen time are not the only culprits. The American workplace more often features sedentary requirements and confined quarters. This is healthy for no one – including corporate bottom lines. Second, look at disability rates – also rising. Our workforce can’t be sustained by masses of sick and injured people, many of whom are forced out of work, often poverty stricken. We need to stay healthy and get better. Third, and related, we have more veterans now who need new jobs, many with accommodations. This is not just about making it easier to take care of our children. It’s about public health, elder care, unemployment, economic sustainability and survival.

The White House and the Families and Work Institute have been doing some major research on this over the past few years, culminating in reports and a conference to highlight some of their findings, particularly in relationship to the economics of workplace flexibility. I also had the opportunity to sit down with Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and ask her some questions about the topic. In short, it’s an epidemic, a real problem that affects everyone, in need of real tangible solutions at all levels.

Anne Marie Slaughter, the former Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department, well regarded in foreign policy circles, wrote a feature article for The Atlantic published online last night, providing stark detail about her own experience while there. Now back in her role as a professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, Slaughter explained why in her experience, “women still can’t have it all.” I’ve been meaning to write about this subject in more detail for a while now, but her article prompted some new thoughts on the subject, including a clarification to those who think this is only a “women’s issue.” Women are clearly at a disadvantage, but men and children suffer as well.

I’ve been studying this issue now for nearly two decades, out of necessity. One year after finishing college, I was forced onto disability leave and inevitably had to quit my job due to severe repetitive strain injuries from poor workplace ergonomics. Working as a computer network engineer consultant, I suffered from musculoskeletal and nerve trauma requiring several years of physical therapy, and major adaptation in order to do any other work involving a computer (such as writing this article). This could have happened to anyone. In my case, it eventually led to my starting two businesses: one, soon thereafter, writing technical articles, using voice recognition software, and another a few years later, designing an online software product to “ergonomize” office work environments for businesses and individuals. During this process, I learned a lot about technologies and attitudes required to adapt in the workplace.

The adaptation attitude I learned from my father, who was paralyzed at age 16 in most of his upper body from polio. A small town boy in Kansas, he spent a year in an iron lung fighting for survival, and he had to adapt to his weakened body and choose a new path following high school. He opted to study hard in college, graduated from Stanford Law School, and became a successful attorney, learning to type one-handed, dictating through a dictaphone, and utilizing an assistant (it was the 60’s and 70’s, so really a “secretary”). I also of course learned by experience as a working mother, the past six years, juggling a myriad of responsibilities and often adapting on the fly when caregivers were unavailable for whatever reason. I learned that an attitude of adaptability and flexibility allows people to think outside the box in other ways, opening up new opportunities both personally and professionally. It’s not just an individual scenario. Change can come on a large scale through proper training and education.

The solution, Slaughter says, is to elect and appoint more women to top positions in government and industry to the point where we have parity, thereby creating a top-down cultural shift. This is true. We’ve seen the reasoning behind it in Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s documentary, “Miss Representation.” We also need more people of color and disabled people taking on these roles. We need diverse leadership perspective in order to truly attain a cultural shift. And we need public will emanating from the bottom-up. These can take place simultaneously. A proper plan will require an interdisciplinary approach including policy changes, creative use of technology, smart messaging, training and significant outreach, but the future of work in the U.S. and the world rests on a paradigm shift.

Social media and mobile technologies are rapidly making this more of a reality with the rise of remote workers and home-based businesses. More companies are opting to adapt their work environments, and more employees are demanding changes. I was inspired last fall when I met the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez, who described a training program in her country that helps disabled people learn to use technology in new ways so they can find new work. Now is the time to start a campaign to retrain workers and educate companies.

What would the campaign teach? Adaptability and flexibility skills and tools: how to promote working from home in increased numbers, tactics for healthy meetings like walking and outdoors (taking notes on mobile devices), Skype chats, Google+ hangouts, or other virtual online tools for conversing over a distance, sit-stand adjustable desks for freedom of movement, automated break reminders so employees can stand up and stretch, flexible time shifting, efficient meeting scheduling, and most importantly how to manage in a flexible work environment. These techniques have all been shown to improve productivity. And we have examples of organizations that have succeeded in these areas, including Bay Area companies like eBay and Google. We can learn from each other’s best practices.

These changes can’t be achieved by any one group or individual. They must take place systemically in a variety of places. As Slaughter shows, Washington needs to adapt its bureaucracy for more nimble action. This requires policy changes. Corporations need mass education programs and likely some kind of incentives or breaks for implementing the trainings. That involves government and industry taking responsibility. Individuals need continued options for starting new flexible businesses, meaning continued small business and loan programs, and families need better and more affordable childcare and healthcare options. Finally, culturally, we all need to foster an accepting attitude that flexibility and adaptability is good, not bad, and that taking time for your health and your family will make the the workplace and the world better for everyone.